Saturday, January 27, 2007

It's amazing how things work

Various things. Cowboy Blob and others have had lousy results with Wolf ammo in their M1 Carbines, but it shoots damn well in mine, no jams, misfeeds or FTE problems and accuracy at least equal to the GI spec stuff I've tried. Some firearms can be so damn picky about what they digest, and others shoot almost anything in the proper cartridge well.

A bunch of people who follow a religeon that advocates slavery, wife abuse and murder are pissed- this time- that movies don't have the 'proper' respect for Arab and muslim culture. As the lady says, then make your own damn movies. If you can figure out how to work the cameras and recorders and...

Falling on ice has an amazing ability to demonstrate how interconnected the various parts of your body are. And not in a good way.

The things kids come up with. He's right, by the way; animals aren't actually smart, but they're sneaky little bastards.

I read a couple of years ago about one of the damn near uncountable members of the Saudi royal family- being in Switzerland for medical treatment- asking an official about a spot near the hospital "What would it take to build a mosque there?" The reply was "First, allow us to build a church in Riyadh." Why the hell isn't that the response from more officials?

From Mark Steyn:The famous photographs of the departing choppers lifting off from the US embassy in Saigon with pleading locals clinging to the undercarriage are images not just of defeat but also of the betrayals necessary to accomplish it. “In reality,” writes John O’Sullivan in his splendid new book The President, The Pope And The Prime Minister, “the betrayal was truer than the defeat. America had not been defeated on the battlefield and South Vietnamese ground forces had themselves defeated a full-scale North Vietnamese invasion in 1972 when they still enjoyed US air support. Not only did the United States withhold such support in 1975, but Congress also refused to supply even the ammunition and military supplies that it had promised when the American forces left. For some perverse psychological motive, the American establishment acted as if the United States would not be genuinely free of involvement in Vietnam until its allies were conquered and occupied.” And many of the chickenshit politicians who had a hand in this are doing everything they can to make it happen again. Rope, lamppost, politician...

Why does anyone give a rats ass about celebrities in the first place? Naomi Campbell has denied she has asked a witch doctor for help.

The supermodel has rejected claims she is interested in Brazil's African-based Candomblé religion, which has rituals likened to witchcraft, after claims she was seeing a witch doctor to curb her temper.
Maybe she'd learn to control it if that five days of community service was five months in jail?

It's bloody wonderful how a college president can fire a coach and throw students under a bus, and now act like said students are wonderful people. And how many of the NAACP clowns seem to think that putting somebody in jail even if they didn't do anything(to make up for the past, you see) is a good idea. And defend the kind of bullshit by a DA that, when it was/is practiced against blacks, has them howling in the street.

It's not amazing, but a friend taped the first episode of The Dresden Files, so I'll be able to watch it. Look for a review when I can get off my ass(actually, on my ass in front of the tv) and see it.

Heard from the male offspring, it's now back to normal weather in Germany: snow and cold.

It's late and I'm tired. More breathtaking observations to come.

Some I've seen before,

but they're all true

Things I learned in Oklahoma

1. Armadillos sleep in the middle of the road with all four feet in the air.

2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in Oklahoma.

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in OK, plus a few science has ever seen before.

4. Raccoons and deer will test your melon crop, and let you know when they are ripe.

5. If it grows, it will stick you. If it crawls, it will; bite you.

6. The aforementioned spiders and snakes are divided into "That one's ok" and "That's a bad one".

7. There are valid reasons some people put razor wire around their house.

8. A tractor is NOT an all terrain vehicle. They do get stuck.

9. The wind blows at 90 mph from Oct 2 till June 25; then it stops totally until October 2.

10. Onced and twiced are words.

11. Coldbeer is one word.

12. People actually grow and eat okra.

13. Green grass DOES burn.

14. When you live in the country you don't have to buy a dog. City people drop them off at your front gate in the middle of the night.
15. The sound of coyotes howling at night only sounds good for the first few weeks.

16. When a buzzard sits on the fence and stares at you, it's time to see a doctor.

17. Fixin-to is one word.

18. There ain't no such thing as "lunch". There is only breakfast, dinner and then there's supper.

19. "Sweet ice tea" is appropriate for all meals, and you start drinking it when you are two.

20. "Backwards and forwards" means I know everything about you.

21. "Jeet?" is actually an inquiry into your dining habits.

22. You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is.
You work until you're done, or it's too dark to see.
23. You measure distance in minutes or hours.

24. You can switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

25. Stores don't have bags. They have sacks.

26. You see cars with the engine running in the Wal-Mart parking lot
with no one in them, no matter what time of the year.
27. All the festivals across the state are named after a
fruit or a vegetable.

28. You install security lights on your house and garage,
and leave both unlocked.

29. You carry jumper cables for your own car.

30. You know what "cow tipping" and "snipe hunting" are.

31. You only have four spices in your kitchen: Salt, Pepper, Ketchup, and Jalapenos.

32. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require six pages to cover Friday night high school football.
33. The first day of deer season is a state holiday. Unofficial, but it's there.

34. You know which leaves make good toilet paper.

35. You find 100 degrees a "touch warm".

36. The four seasons are: spring, summer, still
summer and damn cold.

37. You know whether another Okie is from East, West, North,or South
OK as soon as he opens his or her mouth.

38. Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite past-time known as "off to Wally-world."

39. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good chili-eatin' weather.

40. A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola, or pop....It's a Coke regardless of brand or flavor.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Do not piss off the Finns

without very damn good reason.

I'd read of this gentleman before; impressive would be one of the words.

Found this thanks to Cowboy Blob

I should have posted this yesterday when I signed it,

but for some unfathomable reason I didn't.

Go here, and say what you think of legislators who sign that vile 'resolution' against the increase in troop numbers.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

I know she goes a bit over the top at times,

and needs at least a week on cheeseburgers, but there's a reason I like Ann Coulter:
According to the famed "polls" — or, as I call them, "surveys of uninformed people who think it's possible to get the answer wrong" — Hillary is the current front-runner for the Democrats. Other than the massive case of narcolepsy her name inspires, this would cause me not the slightest distress — except for the fact that the Republicans' current front-runners are John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.

Fortunately, polls at this stage are nothing but name recognition contests, so please stop asking me to comment on them. "Arsenic" and "proctologist" have sky-high name recognition going for them, too.

Among the joys of winter

is the marvelous experience of slipping on the ice and landing on your ass/hip/head/etc. No, I didn't hit my head(so you can't blame anything on that).

I'm kind of in the position of Denny with The Company I Dare Not Name(tcidnn for short): I've got a couple of years to go before retirement, and while I don't know of anybody there who reads this, I'd rather not take the chance so a bit vague this will be.

Due to a combination of things- including stupidity- the place didn't do squat in the parking lot after the ice came down two weeks ago, which meant people falling down. Some just got bruised and sore, a couple were more seriously injured. If they don't sue the place(they should) it'll surprise the hell out of me.

This wasn't the only place demonstrating such dumbassery- unfortunately- so God knows what the total will turn out to have been.

The Oklahoma City and central area of the state really lucked out in all this mess. First the real ice storm wound up falling further east, giving us mostly sleet(quite messy enough, thank you), and then the 'record-breaking snowfall' predicted turned into rain with a little sleet mixed in. Out east they had a lot of damage to power/phone lines & poles, etc. Last I heard there were just a few thousand people left with no power. One thing I will say for the electric companies around here, they're pretty good about getting power restored.

There's supposed to be a 'slight chance of light snow' Saturday, which considering the accuracy level on this crap lately may mean a blizzard descending on the place Friday night.

If you see flares, send booze.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

This would explain a lot...









stolen fromborrowed from the Mauser-Med-Biker guy

And do they get hollowpoint balls?

I know, it's weird, but when you arm the cops with slingshots...
TIJUANA, Mexico - The police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers.

Municipal police spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said Monday that the slingshots, along with bags of ballbearings, were given to officers patrolling areas of the city visited by tourists.


Don't you just love it?

A while back Mark in Mexico had- among a bunch of others- this post on a raid on the Oaxaca Attorney General's office and what occurred:

The feds hit the State Attorney General's headquarters and took it completely by surprise. They have done the following since entering the building:

* Confiscated all weapons of the PolicĂ­a Ministerial that they found inside the building
* Begun to comb files looking for outstanding arrest warrants against PM officers
* Begun to comb files for PM arrest warrants never served against "friendlies"
* Begun to test fire the PM's confiscated weapons to run ballistics tests on murder victims
* Taken control and responsibility for all the State Attorney General 's duties under the law
* Review all small arms to assure they are licensed and the carrier has permits to possess and carry. (emphasis mine)


So similar actions happened in a bunch of other areas. I wonder if the officers there got slingshots too?

And if they get hollowpoint pellets, do they get magnum rubbers, too?

Monday, January 22, 2007

Cheapie candle lantern how-to

Very cheapie, and very handy at times, made from a coke* can.

First, take an empty can-preferably rinsed out- and mark your lines



















I ran the vertical so it ends just inside the start of the taper, and each end about one inch to each side. Nice thing about these cans is you can cut them with almost anything with a sharp edge, and when the flaps are folded out



















I've never seen one with an edge sharp enough to cut you. Scratch, yes. And if you use a steel can it will have nasty sharp edges and corners.

What I usually do is use a small hammer or rock or wrench or whatever, reach inside and bang the base down so you have a flat platform for the candle



















Tealights work best, not only for height but for longevity. Aluminum is a good conductor, which means it gets hot and a cut-short regular candle tends to melt fast. Of course, if you've got a votive candle and glass holder, that'll work pretty well.

This does a pretty good job of protecting the candle from wind, and puts out a nice light toward one direction. You can bend the opening tab up and hang it from a string or hook. And as log as you've got some kind of candle or small oil burner to put inside you can make one anywhere you need light and have a can.




















Nice soft light, the kind that would be nice for a romantic setting(as I recall such occasions, anyway) and you could set several around... "My love, I made these lanterns just for tonight to provide the soft, low light you look best in."

Somehow, that just doesn't sound quite right.


*As Lawdog once wrote, I grew up with 'coke' meaning soft drinks. "We got coke, or ice tea or water. Ok, which coke you want?" Deal with it.

Oh yeah, the Dems have 'dropped the gun issue'

In a pigs ass.

Alan Korwin, author of "Gun Laws of America" ( www.gunlaws.com ), recently alerted us to some ominous activity taking place in Congress. Less than three weeks after the 110th Congress convened, the Democrats have already proposed four -- yes, FOUR -- new gun laws!

Oh, yeah, they've got our safety in mind. Here's the big one:
The most Draconian bill thus far, though, is "The Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2007," H.R. 96 ( http://tinyurl.com/2m8vmr ). This misleadingly-named bill -- a gun-hater's dream come true -- systematically destroys not just the Second Amendment but a number of your other rights as well.

Says Alan Korwin of HR 96:

"Under the original draft, currently legal gun shows are outlawed without prior federal permission. Gun show promoters must agree to warrantless searches in order to operate, and may be arrested if private citizens talk at the show about gun sales they wish to complete away from the show. The right to assemble peaceably at a gun show or even plan for one, carries stiff prison terms unless federal licenses are issued in advance. I am not making this up.

"Massive new bureaucracy is created because all shows and their exhibitors must be registered 30 days before the show, then again 72 hours before the show, and again five days after the show. That's in addition to registering anyone who walks in, plus "any other information" the Secretary of the Treasury decides, by regulation, is necessary on vendors, attendees, and the show itself."


Time to write congresscritters, this BS needs to be stomped on NOW.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

"And if it violates a treaty or other law,

so what?"

The committee asked Mr Hoon whether it was proper for the Government to support a measure, despite reservations about its lawfulness.

In what the committee's top adviser, Sir Edward Osmotherly, described as a "surprisingly frank" letter, Mr Hoon revealed that the Government did not let doubts about a legal basis stand in the way of a proposal if it was expedient on other grounds to back the measure.

However, Mr Hoon was silent about whether there was any hard evidence that trade-offs were effective.


In other words, "Shut up about laws and treaties you bloody peasant, your betters are taking care of things!"

He he he














Stolen without qualmBorrowed from Kesher Talk